What is so special about this release? The smallest most effective personal computer in the world just got better: the iPod touch. I bought the first iPod touch (16 GB version) when it first came out, it instantly replaced 80% of what I ever do on my computer. Now even the original iPod touch does 90-90% of what the average user does on a computer. When applications came out for the iPhone and iPod touch, it got to the point where I could write papers and print them out from my phone.

Now writing papers is not the most efficient process on an ipod, other things are. The web browser (safari) works great, unreal considering its size, and the mail program is flawless. I can easily access all five of my mail accounts and do anything on my iPod about as easily as I can on my computer. That is with the original iTouch. Clearly I haven’t tried out the new one, but it uses the same chip as the iPhone 4 which I have spent some time using, and every application has staid the same or improved dramatically, speed is noticeably better.

Pretty much all laptops these days have the power to process and edit HD video, as does the new itouch, but I have yet to see one that takes HD video; the itouch has changed that. Just like the iPhone 4, the itouch has Facetime. For those of you living under a rock, facetime is videochatting, and used to be only available to iPhone 4 users. Now I was skeptical of it at first because you have to be on a wifi network to use it, so it seemed just as practical as video chat on every mac computer. The difference is going through a phone call instead of having to log into iChat. Back to the main point though; you can video chat on the itouch, just like skyping on a netbook.

On top of the non music related stuff, the itouch is an unreal music device. Every single new ipod device has improved its sound card and delivered improved audio each generation. You can buy music wherever you, and it even has a built in speaker just like a laptop (a laptop with pretty weak speakers, but a laptop nonetheless). The new display is called a retina display because it has more pixels than your eye can actually see, basically you can’t even scientifically see every detail it has to offer. This means it looks simply fantastic just like the iPhone 4.

It’s $220, pretty small amount considering what it is (I paid $400 for the original model and I was happy with it). If you are considering a netbook as a second computer to a larger notebook or a desktop, I would honestly consider looking at this depending on your needs. If I didn’t have my iPhone 3GS I would probably be first in line for it honestly, thinking about it, I might even be second in line.